Timket Celebration is Something Everyone Should Experience: US tourists

Addis Ababa January 20/2023/ENA/ Tourists who came from the USA and attended the Timket celebration at Jan Meda said Ethiopia is a great place to visit and celebration like Timket is something everyone should be able to experience.

Followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church celebrated Timket (Epiphany) with various assortments yesterday across the country. In some places, the celebration continues until today.

Christians in Tigray, and conflict areas of Amhara and Afar have also celebrated Timket peacefully with deep joy and happiness, following the peace agreement, after two years of war..

At Jan meda, Addis Ababa, Timket was celebrated colorfully with the presence of tourists and members of Ethiopian Diaspora.Will Brawders is a USA tourist who came to celebrate the Epiphany for the first time in Ethiopia told ENA that he found Timket celebration very special.

He added that Ethiopian people have rich culture, history and deep love for God and it is amazing to see everybody coming together to celebrate Timket.

It is amazing to see so many people come together regardless of ethnic background and differences and celebrate peacefully the Baptism of Jesus Christ, Brawders observed.

“Ethiopia is a blessed place; the people love God and very welcoming. So I am pleased to be here, he said. As one of the world’s oldest countries, it’s no surprise there’s a host of incredible historic sites in Ethiopia to visit.

Among the very best are Lalibella Rock-hewn Churches, Harar Jugol Wall, the Obelisk of Axum, Gonder Castles.“Ethiopia is a beautiful country—people and culture. So, more people can find out how amazing Ethiopia is, it is a great place to visit, celebrations like Timket are something everyone should be able to experience,” he said. “It is my first time in Ethiopia to celebrate Timket and I have never seen such kinds of event in the US. This is a beautiful experience,” Brawders said.

He urged tourists to come and visit Ethiopia, for the culture is beautiful, the food is delicious, the people are amazing.

Another fellow tourist, Myer Amer on his part said that he wanted to experience this celebration for the first time, in the US, you will never see anything like this.

My message to people out there who have never experienced anything like this or do not know much about Ethiopian culture or religion is, to really get true feeling and experience this; they have to come and experience for themselves. Come, the people here are so welcoming, he stated.

“If anybody out there, who is watching this who many not have experience something like this before, make sure come here and try experiencing because the culture and religious is beautiful and the people are very amazing,” he added. "I know that Addis Ababa has a big population, but I have never seen large gathering of people in one place like this", he added.

To see everybody gathers like this indicates how much peace is there. sometime I think people don’t understand how peaceful this places, Myer said. "When you come here, everybody is smiling, playing game with friends and enjoying. So, I think these kinds of things should show people out there that this place is very peaceful and beautiful,” he said.

Epiphany, Timket in Amharic, is one of the grand outdoor religious festivals celebrated among the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 19 January or 20 January once in every four years.

Timket was inscribed at UNESCO as an intangible world heritage in December 2019.